Father Orthoduck has researched the origins of the above video to try and make sure that it is accurate. It appears to be, although Father Orthoduck must point out that it is a couple of years old and therefore it is out of date. 😯
In the last couple of posts, Father Orthoduck has pointed out both the “missed” predictions by devotees of “newspaper exegesis” and the necessity of the Church listening to Church voices beyond its own locality. In other words, there is a reason why Ecumenical Councils are multicultural, multi-ethnic, etc. But perhaps you did not really catch why end-time exegesis has been so unsuccessful. One of the reasons is the incapability of the human mind to keep up with all that is going on in the world, something that has only become more difficult lately.
So, Father Orthoduck has posted the video above on the speed of change. After you look at the video above, look at the video below, about the various secular voices that have attempted to evaluate some of the changes over the last 100 years, and see how they also have missed correctly evaluating change and what it meant for the future. Actually, the video below may be a very convincing presentation on why one should not become a “futurist,” that is a prophet of the future, without some serious and direct divine guidance.
Salome Ellen says
While I like them both, I’d be more impressed with the second one if they’d done their homework (!) and realized that pencils came AFTER pens! It’s called a “penknife” because you used it to cut that twig or quill into a pen, and trim it when it wore down. Pencils were newfangled, requiring manufacturing techniques.
Eric Comstock says
I really enjoy your blog posts! I have an idea for a series on your blog. It would be very fun/interesting for you to invite an Orthodox priest who is more “center right” in political thought (at least in the US) to join you in this series. The series could look at US political issues from an Orthodox perspective, with both “left and right” viewpoints provided by you and your guest priest(s).
Headless Unicorn Guy says
There’s another reason “end time prognosticators don’t get it”. A reason very familiar to any SF writer who uses a near-future setting: The problem of attaching a fixed Future timeline to an ever-moving Present.
The type example is the Soviet Union and the Second Russian Revolution. Remember all the SF projecting the Cold War well into the future, never mind the End Time Prophecy books projecting the Soviet Union as Gog, Magog, and/or the Kings from the East — literally until the End of Time? All this invalidated by the Second Russian Revolution, to the point that these days the only Communists you find are in American and European Intelligentsia and Education — even China (“ChiComs”) has become a blend of their old Imperial system and Fascism with a Marxist coat of paint.
Fr. Ernesto Obregon says
Good point. Think of all that military science fiction that now looks every so outdated. In passing, may I suggest that those who assume that the USA will somehow be around forever are every bit as mistaken as those who made that assumption about the USSR?